THE brother of missing schoolboy David Spencer spoke publicly for the first time today of his devastation at growing up without his "best mate".

Younger brother Lee O'Toole, aged 19, described David, who was 13 at the time he vanished, as "my backbone".

"While other children went out playing I would spend my time looking for David, searching in bushes all the time thinking I might find him there," he said.

He broke down in tears as he pleaded with anyone who had any information about the mystery disappearance of David and 11-year-old Patrick Warren to come forward.

He said: "It's been absolutely terrible. My life has been ruined. David was my backbone, my best mate. He used to look after me - he was my life and now he's gone.

"At the end of the day someone out there knows something and I would plead with them to come forward and tell every little bit of information.

"The smallest detail could take us another crucial step forward to solving this mystery. Word gets around and even if that word is not in Chelmsley Wood, someone on this earth knows something."

His mother Christine O'Toole begged for information about the Boxing Day 1996 mystery and urged jailed paedophile Brian Field to tell all.

"If he knows something I would beg him to please tell the police so we can get on with living our lives," she said.

"If David is dead I need to know where he is so I can bury him and give him a nice gravestone and have somewhere I can go with my sons to grieve."

Christine, aged 43, made her plea for information as police continued the grisly task of digging for the boys' bodies in a field in old Damson Lane, Solihull.

The site was used by Field as a dumping ground while he worked as an odd job gardener and he had access to the site over Christmas when the boys vanished.

Field, who lived in Rowood Drive, in Solihull, was jailed for life in 2001 for the kidnap, rape and murder of 14-year-old Surrey schoolboy Roy Tutill 33 years earlier.

Det Chief Supt Gordon Fraser, who is leading the hunt for the boys, stressed that while Field was a suspect, police were also following up other lines of inquiry including checking the sex offenders' register and speaking to people convicted of sex crimes in the 1990s.

Christine said she was convinced her son was dead and wanted to be able to lay him to rest.

"I don't celebrate Christmas and haven't put a tree or trimmings up since David went missing," she said.